


Rules of Life

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-29
Updated: 2009-09-29
Packaged: 2018-01-13 13:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1227730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dinah reflects in the midst of her favorite thing... a fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rules of Life

The rules of life were messy, chaotic, and plain nonsense most of the time in Black Canary's eyes. Between bitchy mothers who stupidly forbade her from being everything she could be, to stupid boyfriends who took off for months at a time, to partners who thought they were qualified to make judgment calls from a million miles away in a safe place, there were always things to get on her nerves.

But not this, not the pure give and take of a good fight. She wasn't as bad as Lady Blackhawke, or at least she didn't think she was. A bar brawl was not what Black Canary was all about. What she wanted was someone clearly misguided, clearly beyond help, that she could take out all her frustrations about life and its idiocies on.

When that person was Cheshire, aka Jade Nguyen, aka mother of the most precious human being on the face of the planet, Black Canary was half-convinced that once in a while Karma liked her. Then she could unleash her temper and feel perfectly justified in it. How many times had this woman hurt Roy? How many times had she hurt Lian?

Black Canary moved into the flow of the fighter, avoiding nails, avoiding direct skin contact. Cheshire was a gifted woman, though twisted beyond any redemption. Her talent for poisoning left Black Canary properly wary, as she fought to disable the madwoman. 

When a scratch did land, though, Black Canary called on the discipline of her arts to ward off the effect of the poison. She fueled her fighting drive with the memory of Qurac. She gave her temper more leeway, reminding herself of the Jokerized face of Lian that still haunted her dreams.

Kicks went high and low, fast and accurate. The blows that followed them were the real dangers, though, as Black Canary proved nerve strikes were faster than toxins, even Cheshire's toxins. She watched her opponent fall, then cursed into her mic for a pick-up even as she fell down as well.

`~`~`~`~`

It wasn't Oracle she had to deal with; it was Barbara. That possibly made it worse, as Dinah brought herself to a sitting position.

"Why?"

"She had to be caught."

Barbara couldn't help but clench her fists at that dodge of an answer. Dinah really was worse than a Bat when it came to dealing with relationships.

"You know that's not what I mean!"

Dinah sighed ever so softly. "I don't want to talk about it!"

"You're going to have to, Dinah, or I swear I'm done!"

Blue eyes matched glares with equally blue orbs across the distance between the women. Finally, though, the stubbornness of the Bat wore through the stubborn of the older heroine.

The elder hero broke first. "I can't handle fighting with you over how the team runs, in addition to having to fight to get your attention away from you computer." Dinah looked down, shamed. "I can't keep juggling you, my partner that forgets I know what I'm doing out there, with Oracle who everyone needs, with Barbara the woman I love."

Barbara paused a long moment, before making an irritable sound. "Ever heard of talking? Instead of running off alone to chase down a woman who would very merrily kill you, and almost did?!"

The look exchanged now slowly ended in both women smiling, before Barbara actually let Dinah help her shift onto the bed with her, so they could lean into one another.

"I hate begging."

"It's not begging," Barbara reassured her. "We'll get there."

Dinah closed her eyes. The rules never made sense, when they were always changing, but maybe one day they'd change in her favor.


End file.
